Book review: History of the FIUV by Leo Darroch

Leo Darroch has produced a substantial
and fascinating volume on the FIUV, commonly known as Una Voce International,
from its beginnings up to the end of the presidency of the late Michael Davies.
Davies’ predecessor, Eric de Savanthem, was President for 30 years, from the
early days of the organisation, so the book revolves around these two
remarkable men.

Because of the nature of the material,
the book is episodic in character. Some of these episodes are very revealing
about the state of the Church at the time they took place, so I will devote
this review to three of them.

The first is the interview and
associated correspondence which took place between de Saventham and Archbishop
(later, Cardinal) Giovanni Benelli, then Prefect of the Congregation for Divine
Worship, in 1976 (pp127ff). De Saventham summarised Benelli’s position in a
letter to him following the meeting:

Your
Excellency has urged us to espouse as a matter of conscience the new forms of
the Church’s public cult... Although the character of irreformability only
attaches to definitions, promulgated ex cathedra in matters of faith and
morals, [you asserted that] the assent due to the acts of the Sovereign Pontiff
ought equally to express itself in humble obedience to those of his acts which
merely concern the discipline or other nondoctrinal aspects of the government
of the Church. For there also, you said, it is the same one and indivisible
charisma which guarantees that all these acts cannot but be ordered towards the
true and certain good of the Church. Consequently, you could only consider as
reckless and irreconcilable with a proper ecclesiology all demands or
initiatives which implied that the utility of such and such an act of
government duly promulgated by the reigning Pontiff or under his authority
could be a subject of discussion or even contestation.

Cardinal Benelli did not dispute the
accuracy of this summary. What it amounts to—as Dr de Savanthem goes on to
explain at some length, though not in these terms—is an extreme Ultramontanism,
the view that imbues the reigning Pope’s prudential
decisions with something close to infallibility, and his wishes with a force approaching that
of Divine Law.

The prevalence of such attitudes in a
Rome is part of the explanation of why things were so difficult for Una Voce in
the 1970s and later.It was a more
balanced, one might say a more grown-up, view of the charism of the Papacy
which led to the concessions which were made, by Pope Paul VI in the ‘English
Indult’ (permission for the Old Mass) of 1971, Pope St John Paul II in the 1984
and 1988 indults, Pope Benedict XVI in the motu proprio of 2007, and indeed
with Pope Francis’ concessions to the SSPX more recently. These Popes realised
that even the best-intended initiatives don’t always work out well, for
everyone, and that even Pope can make mistakes.

The 1984 indult specified that the
Mass to be celebrated under its terms was to be in accordance with the
liturgical books of 1962, with no mixing of the old and new books. The 1988
indult said that the earlier indult should be applied ‘generously’; at the same
time the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) was established with the
ancient Mass as its special charism; other ‘traditional’ communities and
institutes followed.

One of the strangest things in the
book, however, is the attitude of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (PCED)
in the 1990s, specifically after the retirement of its first President, the
Benedictine, Paul, Cardinal Mayer, in 1991. Officials there developed a
convoluted argument to the effect that the clause of the 1984 indult which
forbade the mixing of old and new books no longer applied, and further claimed
that reference to ‘1962’ included all the changes effective in 1965 and 1967,
since these were promulgated as Instructions rather than a new ‘typical edition’
of the Missal. This turned out to be part of a programme to bring Catholics
attached to the Vetus Ordo into the mainstream, by bringing their Masses
into closer and closer conformity with the Reform. Antonio, Cardinal Innocenti,
the second President of the PCED, went so far as to tell visiting bishops not
to bother implementing the indult since it was a merely transitional
arrangement. To his embarrassment, one such bishop (Dermot O’Sullivan of Kerry,
Ireland) artlessly repeated this opinion, in writing, to one of the Faithful
who had requested permission for a Latin Mass, on Fellici’s authority, and this
was passed back to the FIUV (pp289ff).

When Darío, Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, was appointed as
fourth President in 2000, preparations were well under way within the PCED for
an Instruction which would have made the 1965 version of the books compulsory
for use under the Indult. That would mean, for example, the removal of the
Preparatory Prayers at the start of Mass, and the Last Gospel, with options for
the use of the vernacular for most of Mass, and for celebration ‘facing the
people’. It was only the vociferous protests of the FIUV, under Michael Davies,
which put a stop to this extraordinary project (pp362ff).

A final, and rather sad,
story from the book is that of the petition to ask Pope St John Paul II to
celebrate the ancient Mass himself in St Peter’s, or else to ask a cardinal to
do so (pp335ff). This was begun by the Latin Mass Society under the late
Christopher Inman. The petition pointed out that since the 1988 Indult the old
Mass had not so much as been mentioned in any papal speech or document, except
for one occasion on which Pope St John Paul II had addressed a traditional
monastic community. Despite the important legal recognition of the 1962 Missal,
the whole issue seemed to have been buried.

With the help of the
FIUV, the petition became a worldwide one, to be signed by 71 leaders of lay
groups and 14 leaders of priestly and religious associations. The LMS went to
great trouble to ensure that it be presented in an attractive way, having a
beautiful hand-painted, framed panel memorialising the petition prepared, and
binding the main document to the highest standards. It was hand-delivered to
the Prefect of the Papal Household on 26th October 1998, and the Traditional
Catholic world waited for a response.

Despite numerous
reminders and requests, only its receipt was ever officially acknowledged:
never that it had been passed on to the Pope himself, and never with any kind
of reply. This attempt to break through official hostility and indifference
was, alas, a complete failure: except, perhaps, sub specie aeternitas. Its request was finally granted, in a
rather discreet way, when Darío,
Cardinal Castrillón
Hoyos, celebrated the Mass of Ages in the curtained-off Blessed Sacrament
Chapel of St Peter’s, on the occasion of the FIUV’s General Aseembly, 5th
November 2011.

Leo Darroch’s important book
contains valuable insights into every major development in the treatment of the
Traditional Mass over the long period of time it covers, and makes clear the
important role of the FIUV. It will be an indispensable work of reference for
scholars and historians, as well as being of interest to anyone who wants to
become well informed about the treatment of our liturgical patrimony during its
long time in the wilderness.